Google Meet, which is the tech giant’s premium video chat application, will be rolled out for everyone for free of cost. The paid service was a part of the G Suite, which is Google’s office utility suite. The service will now open from the meet.google.com from where the users can access it easily.
The apps for iOS and Android phones are also available. The service is free for now; however, it may be paid later. As per Google, the service may be payable after September 30.
Google Meet is now Free
Meet is Google’s Premium video conferencing service, which was earlier known as Google Hangouts Meet, and was part of the Gsuite, a paid service by Google. The premium version of Meet was offered free to the Gsuite customers last month as the covid-19 increased the number of people working remotely. Gsuite account was needed to start a Meet call earlier, which others could join for free.
Free to help people connect
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However, now anyone can join the Meet call and even initiate and host a call on Meet without any premium account. Google has made Meet free for all the users to compete with the rising popularity of the Zoom Video Conferencing platform. Zoom has seen unprecedented popularity in the last few months due to the coronavirus pandemic crisis.
Available for everyone
Google Meet is now available for teams, individuals, learning institutions, schools, and business groups for free. Google has pledged to help people sustain their business by continuing their work operations, which seem to be wholly blogged down due to the crisis. Since, Social distancing, shelter in place orders are there in most of countries, more and more people are working from home.
Competing with Zoom
In such a scenario, video chat services are playing a vital role in ensuring that people can connect. Zoom, Skype, Houseparty, and many other Video chat services are gaining massive userbase right now. Now Google has also made its premium video chat service free.
Phased Rollout
The Google Meet would get a phased update in which new features will be available for the schools, Individuals, and teams. However, Google said that the new update with new features for specific categories would be rolled out in phases over the next few weeks. The free users will be able to sign up for the service starting the first week of May.
Sign-Ups begin Early May.
Google noted that “starting in early May, anyone with an email address can sign up for Meet and enjoy many of the same features available to our business and education users, such as simple scheduling and screen sharing, real-time captions, and layouts that adapt to your preference, including an expanded tiled view.”